Texas Plans To Pour Money Into Special Education

Texas plans to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into fixing the state’s beleaguered special-education system.

As The Houston Chronicle reports, the Texas Education Agency plans to spend nearly $212 million over the next five years to help students with special needs. The news comes in the wake of a 2016 study, which found that Texas had been systemically failing to adequately serve tens of thousands of special needs students statewide.

The new plan comes after innumerable draft proposals and talking sessions with parents, educators, advocates and students. Critics worry that the plan’s hefty price tag isn’t tenable amid Texas’s current fiscal environment. However, Texas education officials are confident they have the revenue sources to make the plan work. Gov. Greg Abbott approved of the idea, praising the Texas Education Agency’s “urgency and commitment.”